"Well that escalated quickly..."
CBS exits Scott Pelley from "60 Minutes"
The Tuesday evening silence was interrupted by our email program, which began dinging insistently as if it were an old AP teletype machine. The breaking news bulletins arrived from all the various news sources we follow, each announcing that CBS News had just fired longtime “60 Minutes” correspondent and former Evening News anchor Scott Pelley.
For those of you in a news blackout over the last 48 hours, we’ll remind you that back on Monday morning, Pelley had been very outspoken in the first “60 Minutes” staff gathering under Nick Bilton, the just-appointed Executive Producer of the venerable TV newsmagazine. Pelley’s strong challenge of Bilton came during what was probably intended as a casual introduction and “get to know you” session, instantly making headlines after the session ended some 15 minutes after it began.
There was much chatter around the television news industry on Tuesday about the substance and tone of Pelley’s grilling of Bilton, and in turn what might be the path forward — if there could be any — for both men.
Since the announcement last week, many have questioned the hiring of Nick Bilton, a journalist “of some 25 years’ experience” (as he insisted to Pelley) but with zero of them spent working in a television newsroom of any sort. Pelley pointedly picked up on that theme during the Monday morning face-off and, depending on your point of view, either took up the defense of the program’s storied legacy of journalism or mandated his own termination from both “60” and CBS.
The New York Times reported Tuesday night that Pelley delayed a scheduled vacation to be in his office today, where he penned a resignation letter that he never delivered. CBS News leaders set up a meeting late Tuesday afternoon with Pelley and Bilton, along with Bari Weiss and CBS News President Tom Cibrowski, and an HR representative joining by speakerphone.
The Times reported that meeting turned contentious and ended with no clear resolution. Status.news has the most detailed accounting of what transpired during the meeting, but the full story is behind the publication’s paywall. (We’ve said it before on multiple occasions: Status is a daily must-read about this business. Definitely worth the paid subscription in our view.)
By Tuesday night, Bilton had delivered a termination letter to Pelley (and apparently sent copies to various media outlets, including the Times, which published it online here). Bilton bluntly informed the remaining “60 Minutes” staff, “We have parted ways with Scott Pelley.”
Having been on both sides of the desk in situations that end in termination, we understand that Pelley’s actions may have left Bilton with little choice. But the more interesting detail to us is that Bilton states in his now-very-public termination letter to Pelley that the correspondent was “terminated for cause, effective immediately.”
With no knowledge of the terms of Mr. Pelley’s employment agreement, we do wonder under what grounds the CBS Legal Department would support the immediate termination for cause, based on what has been reported to have happened to this point. Such a move would very likely mean that the network intended to fight paying Mr. Pelley whatever his contract might state he was owed upon leaving the network. Given that Mr. Pelley probably has (or soon will have) excellent legal representation of his own, this would suggest that many billable hours could follow.
What could also follow is any number of other names, both in front of and behind the camera, following Pelley out the doors of the building on West 57th Street that houses the “60 Minutes” offices. The events of the last 36 hours, as Oliver Darcy of Status wrote on Tuesday night, have thrown the program “into an unprecedented and existential crisis.”
We don’t think he is overstating the situation in the least.
The NFL’s first Sunday of the 2026 regular season is set for September 13th. “60 Minutes” usually debuts its new season on that same day, or the next Sunday at the latest. With reports that no new stories are completed (or are near completion) for the upcoming season, our question is this: Will the program’s iconic stopwatch start ticking right after the announcer says “CBS Sports thanks you for watching this presentation of the National Football League?”
Ironically, while all this was going on in New York, down in Washington, the White House Correspondents Association announced that their annual dinner that was interrupted and ultimately canceled by a lone gunman back in April will now be held on July 24th. Association President Weijia Jiang (whose day job is being a CBS News White House Correspondent) said the decision to reschedule was made “after thoughtful consideration and input from our members.”
While the celebration could not be rescheduled in 30 days as President Trump had insisted would happen after the initial event ended in chaos, according to a post on the President’s Truth Social account, the dinner will now be held in the Waldorf Astoria hotel in DC, adding “a building and ballroom that I built.” Mr. Trump confirmed that he will attend the rescheduled celebration.
Which might lead some of you to ask the same question that is on our minds:
“When it comes to the state of American journalism, just what the hell is there left to celebrate?”
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